Abstract
Photovoltaic greenhouses have been claimed to be a solution to cover the energy demand of the protected crops sector. Thus, there is a need to know what is the maximum percentage of shading produced by roof-top photovoltaic panels that does not affect crop yields. The present study analyzes the effects of increasing percentages of shading in a greenhouse tomato crop located in the southeast of Spain. For this study, photovoltaic panels have been simulated with opaque sheets located in the roof-top of a north–south oriented greenhouse. Three treatments of top roof shading percentage (15%, 30% and 50%) where studied and compared with the control treatment without shading (0%). During the study, parameters registered were radiation, temperature, pH and electric conductivity of the substrate, crop yields and fruit quality. Results of the analysis show that higher percentages of shading in the roof-top of greenhouses reduce so much available radiation for the crop causing a reduction in the yield and fruit quality, even in Mediterranean areas where radiation is not a limiting factor.
Highlights
IntroductionEnergy and food sustainable production is a major concern of actual society [1,2].Several researchers have shown that photovoltaic energy production in a greenhouse could cover the energy demand of farms and get additional incomes for producers for energy selling to a general electricity network [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10].the decrease in the use of fossil fuels can reduce the production of polluting gases in intensive agriculture [11,12,13,14]
Photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) in the control treatment was higher, and photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) radiation reduction was proportionally higher than the the control treatment was higher, and PAR radiation reduction was proportionally higher than the shading surface increase in the different treatments studied (15%, 30% and 50%)
Cossu et al [26] claim that the annual global decreases by 0.8% for each additional 1.0% of photovoltaic panels located in a roof-top greenhouse
Summary
Energy and food sustainable production is a major concern of actual society [1,2].Several researchers have shown that photovoltaic energy production in a greenhouse could cover the energy demand of farms and get additional incomes for producers for energy selling to a general electricity network [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10].the decrease in the use of fossil fuels can reduce the production of polluting gases in intensive agriculture [11,12,13,14]. Photovoltaic energy production for agriculture use can be especially interesting in remote areas where connection to a general electricity network is not available or at a high-cost [15,16,17,18]. In low latitude countries, such as Spain, Italy, Greece and other Mediterranean countries, solar radiation can satisfy PAR requirements of crops in greenhouses. In these countries summer period solar radiation results in being excessive, having negative effects in greenhouse
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